CEO Chooses Wildlife Photography and Philanthropy Over Retirement

PetaPixel

Over the course of his 40+ year business career, Brian Hampton took the lead as CEO of 5 successful companies. Through it all, however, he had a passion for photography that never waned. And so, now that he’s retired from the business world and has time to spend pursuing that passion, he’s turned what was once a hobby into an incredibly successful wildlife photography career — as long as you don’t equate making money with success.

You see, Hampton is a specific kind of successful when it comes to photography. He’s well-known and respected, but almost half of the money he makes selling signed 12″ x 12″ and 18″ x 18″ hand-made books of his work (at $1,850 and $2,500, respectively) goes straight to charity, and the rest goes to covering publishing costs. In fact, Hampton doesn’t even break even … he loses money.

But to him, this doesn’t seem to mater. Over the years his work — some of which has been displayed in the Smithsonian — has helped to raise over $100K for charity. The fact that he loses money doing what he loves doesn’t matter as long as he and his wife can continue to travel, take pictures and raise money for qualified not-for-profit organizations. To that end he has been, and continues to be, wildly successful (no pun intended).

Here’s a sampling of some of Hampton’s stunning photography:

Each of his books consists of 50 amazing photos taken either in Africa or the Everglades (Alaska is next), narrowed down from over 1,000 candidates. Those 50 are then sent to a local photography studio where each book is hand-crafted one at a time.

To see more of his work or, if you can afford to, purchase one of his photo books and help a charity at the same time, head over to his website by clicking here.